Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF)
The Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) is a prominent organization advocating for the political rights of the Moro people, a significant Muslim population primarily found in the southern Philippines. Established in 1968 in response to historical oppression and displacement of Muslims by Christian-dominated governments, the MNLF's goals encompass demands for both autonomy and independence from the Philippine national government. The roots of Moro discontent trace back to centuries of colonial rule, beginning with Spanish colonization in the fifteenth century, which severely marginalized Muslim communities.
The organization gained attention for its military engagements against government forces starting in the 1970s, utilizing guerrilla tactics and sometimes resorting to kidnappings. Although peace treaties and negotiations have occurred, including a notable agreement in 1996 that granted some autonomy to the Moro regions, internal divisions within the MNLF have persisted, leading to ongoing conflicts. By 2017, while the MNLF had established legal control over parts of Mindanao, various factions continued to engage in armed struggles, reflecting the complex interplay of cultural, political, and religious factors that shape the Moro struggle for rights and recognition in the Philippines.
Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF)
The Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) is an organization formed to win political rights for the Moro, a large Muslim population mostly living in southern regions of the Philippines. Some MNLF leaders wanted Moro autonomy (self-control) and others wanted complete independence from the national government. The goals of the MNLF reflect Muslim discontent after centuries of oppression under Christian-dominated governments, starting with colonization by Catholic Spain in the fifteenth century.
The MNLF formed in 1968 after Catholic Filipinos from other regions displaced hundreds of thousands of Muslim Moro. Ferdinand Marcos, president of the Philippines, refused Moro demands for autonomy. In 1973, the MNLF began using military and terror tactics to gain influence.
The MNLF engaged Filipino armed forces in many battles, often using successful guerrilla tactics, and kidnapped tourists and Christians. Ineffective peace treaties and concessions marked the coming decades. Additionally, factional disputes within the MNLF contributed to continued conflict. By 2017, the MNLF had gained legal control over the large island of Mindanao, but factions were still fighting in other regions.
Background
The Philippines has a long history of religious turmoil, largely based on Christian domination of Muslims and other religious minorities. About 6 percent of the Filipino population is Muslim, a small minority compared to the almost 80 percent who practice Catholicism. Many of these Muslims are known as Moro, a designation that encompasses Islamic Filipinos of many regions, languages, and cultural traditions. Most Moro live in the southern parts of the Philippines.
Islam first arrived in the Philippines around the fourteenth century. Early Muslims struggled to find a place in Filipino society. Their social standing only worsened in the fifteenth century, when Spanish colonizers arrived in the area. The Spanish brought Roman Catholicism with them and generally had little tolerance for differing faiths. Spanish policies attempted to convert or punish Muslims and others they considered heretics.
The Moro resisted Spanish domination and tried to keep their religious and cultural identities intact. They faced many challenges in doing so. One problem was that the Moro were a deeply varied and divided group. Early Moro formed clans that acted independently and often disagreed with or even battled other clans. Moro subdivisions developed their own religious and cultural mores that often failed to work together with those of neighboring groups.
Spanish colonial domination collapsed by the end of the nineteenth century, but that brought little relief to the Moro. The United States, which had defeated Spain in the Spanish-American War in 1898, claimed control over the Philippines. American leaders brought strong Christian traditions that did not favor Muslims. The US occupation of the country lasted until 1946, at which time the Philippines became an independent country. Still, the Catholic majority dominated the new government and most of its cities and regions.
The Moro continued to fight for their rights, first against US occupation forces and then against the new national government. The Moro pressed to have their homelands in the southern Philippines declared an independent government. Their efforts were unsuccessful. Worse, social changes in the country led thousands of Catholic Filipinos from northern regions to move south. There, they settled in and near the traditional Moro regions, buying land and promoting Christianity.
Overview
The Moro experienced centuries of repression and resistance. By the twentieth century, they still had little hope of freedom or protection. The migration of Catholics into Moro land during the 1960s, which contributed to the displacement of hundreds of thousands of Muslims, seemed to provide a rallying point for Moro activists. Filipino Muslim groups, long divided by differences in their religious and cultural traditions, began to unite for the common cause of Moro separatism.
In 1968, a group known as the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) formed in the hopes of forcing the Filipino government to grant Moro independence. The country's president, Ferdinand Marcos, rejected their appeals and imposed martial law, or rule by military forces, throughout much of the Moro homeland. The MNLF responded violently. Starting in 1973, thousands of MNLF-aligned fighters began battling with government forces in many parts of the southern Philippines. By 1975, the MNLF included about thirty thousand combatants.
President Marcos reevaluated some of the Moro claims and agreed that they deserved some compensation for their suffering, particularly in the displacements of the 1960s. However, he repeatedly denied Moro demands to secede from national government control. MNLF leaders responded by refusing to acknowledge the government and tried to wrest control of the large island of Mindanao to Muslim hands.
MNLF continued to battle government forces into the 1980s, despite the end of martial law. In 1981, MNLF troops won a victory over a government army on the island of Pata. MNLF factions also began using kidnapping and ransom as terrorist tools against civilian populations, targeting Catholics and tourists, to spread fear and force accommodations. Their power grew, even though internal disagreements led to the formation of splinter groups within their ranks.
The ousting of President Marcos in 1986 brought some hope for reconciliation. The new national leader, President Corazon Aquino, was eager to negotiate with the MNLF to stop the violence. Nur Misuari, head of the MNLF, agreed to a temporary cease-fire and reached a compromise with Aquino, pledging that the MNLF would stop fighting if its homelands gained autonomy within the country. Although Aquino agreed, radical factions within the MNLF were not satisfied and pushed for the total independence of Moro lands.
Fighting resumed in 1988. However, in 1990, the Filipino government voted to grant autonomy to the Muslim-controlled island of Mindanao. This met the MNLF's most basic demands, but the fighting continued sporadically until 1996. That year, Filipino president Fidel Ramos met with Nur Misuari and negotiated a peace treaty between the government and the MNLF. The MNLF, then roughly 17,700 strong, agreed to stop fighting and took control of Mindanao with Misuari as its leader.
Still, trouble in the Moro region did not end. Conflicts and skirmishes continued into the 2000s. After a series of battles in 2005, the combatants returned to truce negotiations. These negotiations were complicated by changes in MNLF leadership and continued factionalism among its branches and associated groups. In the 2010s, battles resumed in the Bangsamoro region, where Muslim militants continued to fight for autonomy and independence. In 2019, the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) was formally established as part of a peace agreement to conflicts, replacing the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM). While the BARMM has achieved some accomplishments, continued complications caused by intra-Moro competition among rival groups has created concern that the peace may be derailed. As such, the future of the Moro communities of the Philippines continues to be uncertain.
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